It took ten years but Disney finally got the Chinese government to allow them to build a giant theme part in Shanghai. But analysts say that the move won't help Disney's media business at all. The Chinese government strictly censors all television, books, magazines and films. The themepark deal won't help Disney get its media business moving in China, although Disney clearly is hoping to get in on the ground floor if conditions change.
Disney, the owner of the ABC network in the U.S., still has no approval for a TV station in China.
"Disney's park will mostly be a boost for its retail business in China, not media," said Duncan Clark, Chairman of Beijing-based consulting firm BDA China. "The only way they could get this park in China is by keeping it separate from their media business."
China's government owns all the nation's television channels and newspapers and imposes limits on foreign media companies, including allowing only 20 overseas films a year.
China censors material critical of the ruling Communist Party through control of publication licenses, state-ownership of TV and radio stations and by blocking access to Internet sites such as Google Inc.'s Youtube. Those restrictions led News Corp. Chairman Murdoch to say in 2005 that his company had hit a "brick wall" in China.
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"The market is being opened more and more but media is a sensitive industry in China and any changes will only happen very slowly," said Professor Ding Xueliang, who teaches courses on political, economic and social development in China at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
All the big media companies are salivating at the thought of reaching 1.3 billion new consumers. But so far China is holding fast to its rigorous censorship rules.
